Electrical annunciator



(No Model.)

T. W. LANE. ELEOTRIGAL ANNUNOIATOR.

No. 473,121. Patented Apr. 19, 1892.

UNITED STATES ATENT Fries.

THOMAS IV. LANE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE ELECTRIC A GAS LIGHTING COMPANY, OF MAINE.

ELECTRICAL ANNUNCIATOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 473,121, dated April 19, 1892.

Application filed December 15, 1890. Serial No. 374,848. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.- maybe embodied without departing from its Be it known that I, THOMAS IV. LANE, a citiscope. zen of the United States, residing at Boston, I will now refer to the drawings and ex- Massachusetts, have invented a new and useplain its construction and operation. 55 ful Electrical Ann unciator, of which the fol- V -In Fig. 1, A represents a supporting-block lowing is a full and complete description, reiof wood or proper material. The two electroerence being had to the accompanying drawmagnets B Care attached to the block A by Q' in which; screws whose heads may be sunk in the back Figure 1 is a front view of the apparatus in of the block or by other proper means. The 6o 10 position. Fig. 2 is an end view. Fig. 3 is a armaturesof the magnets areconstructed from perspective plan looking down and diagonally soft iron and are sustained by two posts D across the apparatus. E, (which may be similarly attached to the My invention relates to that class of anblock,) to which they maybe held by washers nunciators used in hotels and wherever reand screws cl e, as shown in the drawings. The 15 ports or signals are desired from several magnet B has about one-half of its coreb prochambers or other places. j ecting beyond the magnet,and its armatureB My invention consists,first, in an electrical is pivoted in said post D and formed with its gravity setback, broadly considered, as a upper portion adapted to fit against the core new device for this class of apparatus, and, I), while below the post it is extended and 20 second, in the construction and adaptation adapted to carry the announcing disk or tag of the devices and elements making parts F, which is to be so weighted or controlled thereof. that when the annunciator is free to swing So far as I am aware an electrical setback upon said post D it will swing away from the t'. e., the means by which the disk or tag upon coreb and assume a normal position, as shown 2 5 which the announcementis made returns to a by the dotted lines in Fig. 1. Upon the top normal positionhas never before been made, of the armature B is fixed the pin or rod 2, except with or containing a polarized arma- 'or the armature is extended for purposes ture for the magnets, and its operation by which will appear later on. The magnet C constant reversals of the polarity of the ma has its armature 0 attached to a springy piece 0 net, or by using a magnet-core which is either of metal 0', which in turn is attached to the permanently magnetic or temporarily so afpost E by a screw e, as shown, in such way as ter the current in the helix ceases, as in Letto be normally at a short distance from the ters Patent No. 435,440; but under my invenmagnet-core. This armature C is extended tion 'both the armature and the magnet-core into or carries a small rod or pin 1, which is 3 5 are made of soft iron, which cannot be renso arranged as to bear against or lie on pin 2 of dered magnetic after the current ceases, but armature B when the apparatus is-in the cononly While it is passing through the helix. dition shown by dotted lines, Fig. 1; but when Mechanical setbacks depend upon a rod or armature B is attracted to the core I) said other physical means for manually restoring pin 1 shall catch pin 2 and thereby retain ar- 0 40 the signaldisk to position. My invention mature B in position, as shown in Fig. 2.

does away with both physical means for manu- G represents the bell of an ordinary elecally restoring the signal-disk and a polarized tric gong requiring no particular description. armature operated by reversing the polarity H represents the line-wire coming from the of the magnet and at the same time provides chamber or place where signal is to be given, 5 5 an apparatus which is less expensive to make which passes through the electric gong onto and less likely to get out of order-and in all the magnet B and thence to ground. its manipulation and action much more satis- I represents the line-wire from the hotel-0ffactory. fice or place from which signals are to be at- Some of the details of my construction can tended to and the apparatus restored to nor- 10c 50 be varied, and the exact form shown is not mal condition.

exclusive of others in which my invention In Fig. 2 the contacts made by the pins 1 the lines which are not dotted.

The operation of my invention is as follows: The apparatus is as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, the armature B hanging free. By means of a push-button in the chamher or point to be signaled from a current is admitted from a battery (not shown) over the wire II, which may or not run through a magnet (not shown) of an electrical gong G, energizing that magnet and ringing the gong to attract attention. Thence the current passes by II to the magnet B, making its core I) magnetic and enabling it to attract the armature B, whereby the tag F is swung into view in the annunciator-case, disclosing the number of the room from which the signal comes or any other announcement. \Vhen the armature B reaches the core Z), the pin 2 slips behind pin 1 and is thus locked into that position, causing the tag to remain in view until released, as shown further in Figs. 2 and The person in charge of the apparatus may now, by means of a push-button at any convenient place, as a hotel-office, admit an electric current from the battery (not shown) over the wire I to magnet 0, whose core attracts the armature 0' toward the magnet and causes the pin 1 to disconnect. from pin 2, whereupon gravity or other proper means causes the armature B to swing on the post D back to the position shown in Fig. 1 by the dotted lines.

It is evident that many points may be signaled from, and so tags for many rooms be included in the same case, as is usual, and operated bya single battery, of which, except when the battery is in operation by the closing of a circuit, the waste is almost imperceptible.

Having claim is- 1. In an electrical annnneiator, in combination with a gravity-signal tag and a magnet properly arranged to operate the same, an electrical setback composed of a magnet, armature having a spring connection, supporting-post therefor, and a proper locking device, substantially as shown.

2. An electrical annunciator composed of one magnet, a supporter for the armature, an armature with proper extensions to carry a weighted tag or visual signal, a tag properly connected therewith and a second magnet, a supporter for its armature, and an armature with a proper extension arranged to lock the first armature when that is attracted by the first magnet and to unlock the first armature upon the second armature being attracted by the second magnet, so as to allow the signal to fall by gravity, substantially as shown.

3. In an electrical annuneiator, the combination, with the gravity-drop F and a magnet properly arranged to operate the same, of the magnet 0, support E, armature 0, springpiece 0, and pin 1, as and for an electrical setback, as described and shown.

4. The combination, with a proper base A, of the magnet 13, armature 13, pin 2, support D, weighted visual signal F, and the magnet O, armature 0, pin 1, springpiece c, and support E, properly adapted for electrical connection, substantially as described.

THOMAS \V. LANE.

described my invention, what I Witnesses:

NATHANIEL U. WALKER, Enw. P. PAYSON. 

